The New Zealand to Fiji Crossing

Last min stuff- talked to customs, they’ll be here Sat to check us out.  Both visas all good.  Laundry, last shopping, celebratory buffalo chicken and cheesecake, and too much rum. 
Marquesa burns about 8 gals/day to motor.  Good day = 120 miles, calc with 100 miles/day

Day 1
Left Opua.  Last breakfast eggs benedict, checked out with customs, and presented paper to Fullers Marina for gas rebate -> diesel came to $300 NZ for 200L  yikes.
Going out the bay took a lot less time than coming in did- almost no wind, and only large long gentle swells coming in towards us and making some good surf against the islands.  No farewell dolphins, though Cpt says you get them sometimes.  Called dad from mid-Bay.
Once out on ocean the breeze picked up a lil to mabe 15 knots and we did 5.5 knots.  Outpaced three or four other sailboats during day.  Then sunset and wind shifted and we turned more NW.  Funny lights on horizon - red and green and white, seemed to separate and then come together, then speed off suddenly over the N horizon.  Guess they passed sorta close to appear to be moving so quick.  In the midst of this, the Am couple we saw at customs, Pursuit starts calling to a cat on the radio “this is pursuit, calling the catamaran at 34S 175E, calling the catamaran with no running lights.  So I was much more concerned about the potential that some idiot was sailing out there, asleep below with no lights on.
Stood watch for about 4 hrs on and off, til around 0100.  Felt ill a couple times and had to lay down briefly.  The first of 13 days of seasickness. 

Day 2
Made about 100 miles yesterday
Sun just set, sitting writing this at desk with headlamp while Cpt sleeps.  He didn’t get much past two nights. 
Really weak and shifty winds all day.  Cpt did 8 sail changes and trimmed dozens of times, to little avail.  We did about 100mi yesterday, today prob less.  Motored for just a lil while.  Cpt says this is his worst 2-day run ever.

Day 3
About 90 miles yesterday.
Feeling a bit more seasick, but wearing patch.  Not as bad as last time.  Wind picking up to around 15 knots. Sunny, but still cold and spending most of day below.

Day 4
About 120 miles yesterday
Coldish today, feeling sick and slept most of day.  Cloudy, motion fairly violent and winds around 20 knots.

Day 5
70 miles yesterday
Winds were too strong yesterday, and swell and current= only about 70 miles over ground.  Sky cloudy, cold, feeling quite sick and stayed below sleeping.  Hard to focus my contacts now after so much day sleep.  Bad day for Cpt - I slept midships on floor, about 0800 got up to go to the head, and hear a shouted curse.  A hard wave stuck the main hatch and water came pouring in- inexplicably, to me, as its sealed tight with new silicone.  Rough and nasty irregular seas today- like giant fist hitting side of boat.  Cpt says all crossings this year have been nasty like this.  He left companionway open til water came thru the skylight, then put running boards in.  Sailing on genoa aone with 20-30 knot winds.  Cloudy.  Ramen noodles.  Cpt has sore ribs from sleeping on narrow settee on side, et al.  Boat has lots of leaks- flowing in by the cupful from under galley port.  Old ceiling leak from main hatch, books on port side wet, lots water coming in over bookshelves on starboard… it’s lots worse than on the way south to NZ.  Cpt worried it’s getting under deck/under paint and flowing in, rotting wood…I think it was dry in rain, but under these sorta heavy seas its coming in big time.  Cpt really seems to hate ocean crossings.  Possible the leaks are all just coming from stanchions and chain plates.  Have asked Cpt to go through survival bag with me and teach me to operate SSB radio, but he's not keen.  "Lets just assume nothing's going to happen"  I'll just do it when he's not looking.

Day 6
90 miles yesterday
Not on computer for long time while sick and catching up now.  Nice clear skies after midmorning, woke to noticeale temp change and mugginess. Slept on floor again- pretty comfortable but easy to get  an achey back. Had towel over me in case of 4th wetting incident, woke up a some of the bigger crashes and the mirror attacking me unexpectedly at around 4am.  Wondering what to do in event of a knockdown.  Felt better around midday, cereal for bkfast, cheesy noodles lunch, pb sandwich dinner and a couple carrots. 
Hungry all day, but feeling pretty good.  We’ve had a lot of trouble making any easting- had 30 miles at first, then strong SE and E winds pushed us back to 174 40’E by 26S.  Suva is roughly 19S 180E, so we are around 400 miles west of where we need to end up.  McDavitt says window next is 10 June, gribs show strong easterlies up to 24S, then a day of weird shifty light winds, then northerlies and easerlies, light.  Going to Vanuatu is always an option, but a sucky one as you have to sail halfway up the country to check in.  Personally I would stop at New Caledonia, though mbe fees make it not worthwhile.  Waiting anxiously for wind to start clocking around to the south more- but that s not shown til 24S,  gtibs are changing a lot every day, so running NNW and hoping for a change in forecast.  Might be 11 days altogether or more now.  Cant focus contacts sleeping in them too much.
 


Day 7
96 miles yesterday
Surprise in the form of a flying fish in the cockpit today.  Strangely, after I handled it I touched my eye and this resulted in a good deal of pain and several mins rinsing.  A couple hours after that I broke out in hives on arms and some on chest and back.  Not sure if this was fish, or eye drops, or wet salty cushions, or stopping the eardrops, or what.  Don’t seem to be getting worse at least, applied hydrocortisone.  Tossed fish.  Also figured out that the blurry vision is from scopoderm - thank god for the read-book-aloud function on the kindle.
Had a bath and changed outside.  Will see now how I do without patch.
Sunny today with some intervals clouds, warm - 75F, reading Stephanie Plum to pass time.  We’re still heading direct NE and were at 174 40’ by 25 30’S this morning-  very far west.  Raised ZaZu and they are also off, but are a degree north and west of us.  They lost their self-furling- so obviously Cpt did the right thing in reducing sail when he did, even though it slowed us down.  Getting new gribs now
B showed me radio some- press clear-cler-#-enter.  Stuff over 1000 or so tends to skip over us.  ABC is aussie channel- some news there.

Day 8
70 miles yesterday
Most awesome lightning storms all night- incredibly active, about 1 flash/5 secs, tho there were systems on the horizon with one/sec= like a heartbeat.  Most of it was to the west, off towards new Caledonia at first.  Dark clouds coming about a thumbs width up off the horizon.  I noticed the flashes from inside and mentioned it, then came up to watch.  I ooh-ed as a large ball of lightning traced a bright snaking path sideways along the top of a high cloud.  We watched side flash after side flash, so bright and dangerous. Cpt  gets out lightning monitor and fastens it to the main sheet under the dodger.  It flashes 8-12 miles, then a 0-6- Definitely close, since we can hear its loud crackle.  None of the rest is audible- its downwind.  We’ve got maybe 10 knots or so, light stuff, and we’re moving almost parallel but slightly away from the system at around 3-4 knots. 
The storm keeps up its amazing display for hours before we go to sleep, and it doesn’t slow down for the rest of the night.  Cpt talks about how lightning can destroy your electric system and antennae, and blow out your through-holes.  I go below and take a note of our exact position, time, and heading on paper, just in case.  Then we tack, hoping to head away from the storm and get some easting.  Unfortunately Marquesa only sails within 60 degrees of the wind, and we weren’t tight to it before or after tacking, so we only achieve a 160 degree turn.  The storm covers half the sky, so we arent headed away from it much more than before, but that’s the best we can do without motoring, which apparently might also attract a ground strike.  I can’t believe how much sideways movement there is to this storm- all north to south.  We are in an area of light and variable winds, the gribs show sudden shifts n-s, so apparently this is why.  This area extends a degree or two Fiji-ward away from us, and is supposed to last several days, so I wonder if we will be in for the same thing tomorrow night.  Cpt says this is the most active and sideways system he’s seen- too bad, guess it’s unlikely I’ll see many more like this one.  One of the most beautiful and terrible sights ever.
At one point I’m standing in the main hatch- not the safest place, but can’t help it, and I see a flash, then a green light starts flashing along the side of the solar panel, self-steering, and backstay.  I look around, trying to figure out what blinks green on this boat and could reflect… can’t find anything.  After awhile it stops, then starts again.  At a loss, I wonder if this could possibly be st elmos fire?  Pulsing like that?  Seems unlikely… then I show Cpt and he says it’s the green light on the solar panel that comes on when daylight approaches- its being set off by the lighting.

 Day 9
90 Miles yesterday.
For a few days we had almost no wind, and made almost no headway.
I was OK first day off patch, but second day started feeling shitty and at end of day gave up and put it back on.  I’m taking it off at night now, and so far no blurry vision or hives.
Cpt not happy about how much decks are leaking, and no wind.  We’re still out at 175E 25S.  I’m very hungry but can’t stomach much.  Eat salad like a wolf then lay down.
Nice crescent moon setting big and orange on the western horizon tonight.  Water is full of little phosphorescing-when-disturbed critters, show as white blurs in torch light.  There are millions upon millions of them in the upper layers of the water- spread out across the countless miles of big, seemingly empty Pacific.  Very cool.  Cpt says their out for the moon.

Day 10
60 miles yesterday  22 50S by 175 30E at 10am
  Felt better for a lot of the day- pretty golden in am and afternoon.  Cooked some spaghetti with sausage and peppers, wolfed it down with green beans.  This and cereal sated me for the day.  In evening discovered some of my hard candy were actually chewy toffee bonbons, and these were quickly dispatched.  Prob actually made cal quota for day today.
Almost zero wind all day, sea calm with long low Pacific swells and little wind ripples.  Lay out for an hour to work on base tan. 
In PM Cpt fished, caught 12” tuna, got a second hit.  He gutted it and put it in fridge to fry/BBQ.  Looked in water for my little white glowing buddies, but they were all in hiding.  Cpt worried about fuel, decided to motor til we couldn’t anymore then sail in with a lil reserve kept for the reef/shore area.  We've finished the front tank and the back one is at 3/4.

Day 11
 80 miles yesterday, roughly 21 00’S by 176 00’E at 10am
Only a couple hundred miles to go - exciting.  We could get in tomorrow.  Cpt not bothering with gribs anymore.  Not surprised these areas of light and variable winds are hard to predict; the gribs seems to have been fairly accurate when it comes to 15 kn and higher areas.
Reading the Warded Man - very good, passes time excellently.  Got on glasses and sunglasses together.  Haven’t bothered with contacts in several days-falling asleep at random too much, it would be uncomfortable.  Woke up to nice dawn to write this.  Actually it’s a red dawn - sailor take warning!  Getting pretty tired of laying down all the time and napping, so it will be good to get in tomorrow or the day after.

Day 12
105 miles yesterday
Motored all day til eve, when a wind came up and carried us into the Kadavu Channel.  10-15knots all night, brief lull to 4 knots when we came into the lee of Kadavu.  Island visible as dark hill on S end outlined against cloudy sky.  Brief shower in the straight.  Did a 2 hr watch, then later a 4 hr one.  Winds a lil shifty but not bad.  Zero boat traffic seen, other than a green diffuse glow on the horizon at the start of my 2nd watch.  Slept heavy down below. 
Freeze dried beef stroganoff for the meal.
Saw a turtle 20’ off the boat, and a beautiful jellyfish.

Whats left of the NZ courtesy flag

Leaving NZ behind

Open ocean, the first night

Catching dinner

Dinner!

Hundreds of miles of empty ocean

Hot, still, empty ocean

Day 13
Arrival!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazingly, still sailing, to the east- wind 10-15 pretty much right into Suva.  Some dark clouds ahead of us looking pretty unfriendly for a time.  Occasional showers, very rare moments of sun.  Sea very calm.  Passed pretty much right over a skull and crossbones on chart off Mbugga Reef - reef or rock I’m not sure, no change in water color and quite a ways out from the barrier reef.  Suva is in big river delta with yacht club at north end of town- prob we’ll anchor there, less chance of thieves. 
Fired potato slices for lunch.  Looking forward to some good food now- I got real hungry at a couple points midvoyage, but too nauseous to eat, think I’ve lost a bit over the past 2 weeks.  Best diet plan ever.
Saw a sea turtle last night- 20’ f boat, 3’ long.  Took off at a surprisingly quick pace when he saw/heard us coming.  He was out in the middle of nowhere.  Spent all eve yesterday hoping to see Fiji, but didn’t till dark last night when the hill was visible behind Kadavu, with a lighthouse on the S point flashing.  Would have been nice to stop at Kadavu anchorages incl Astrolabe Reef, but apparently they are pretty strict about checking in.  Cpt is worried about interracial issues and crime here, thinks maybe he won’t enjoy Fiji.  Lots to do on boat still - windlass links, sail repairs, rain cover repairs, depth sounder, pull stanchions and seal them and chain plates…
Checking in process is supposed to be pretty complicated…
But we're here!!!

The Battle of the Scanmar self steering, Whangarei NZ

Scanmar self-steering unit on the brackets Dave built to hold it outboard of the solar panel.


Another rainy day.
There is one small event to report: the rudder hinge piece for the Scanmar self-steering has returned after passing through the hands of yet another metals shop.
The little bit I've learned about self-steering: Self-steering options include electronic (course is sensed and directed by electronic gear, and course changes are made, in the Marquesa's case, by a hydraulically-assisted motor mounted down by the lower steering column) and mechanical. Mechanical self-steering systems are wind based, which work well offshore, where wind direction tends to be steady and sails can be trimmed and left for hours. Mechanical systems include trim tab, auxiliary rudder, and servo-pendulum- e.g. the Monitor.
In a trim-tab system a wind vane directs a tab on the trailing edge of the boat's rudder. While the windvane doesn't produce enough force to turn the entire rudder, it can turn the smaller trim tab on the end of the rudder.
Similarly, in an auxiliary rudder system, the relatively small force of a windvane directs a secondary rudder which is smaller than the main rudder.
Servo-pendulum systems were a real breakthrough in the cruising world. They use a pendulum, servo gear, and a small oar/rudder to hydraulically enhance wind force so that it is sufficient to turn the main rudder. The stronger the wind/faster the boat speed, the more force created. The system that produces the force is complicated and both the windvane and the rudder end up rotating around a horizontal axis as well as a vertical one. Motion is passed on to the wheel via gears and ropes.
Scanmar touts themselves as the 'world's largest manufacturer of self-steering equipment', and their Monitor model is described by Bluewater Sailing as 'the most popular windvane ever built'. Dave wishes he'd bought an Aries (tougher but more expensive).
The self-steering has been the bane of Dave's existence for some time now. His college degree is in metallurgy and he comes out with some pretty good diatribes when he encounters shoddy metal-working jobs. The unit hasn't seen a whole lot of use prior to this trip, but apparently it's poorly designed. It's broken 4 times so far. Near Tahiti the hinge needed repair due to stress fractures in the welds; the welds hadn't been stress-relieved and the metal is too thin to be durable. In Samoa the hinge pin broke and had to be re-ordered from the States. The servo rudder hinge broke twice partway through the crossing from Tonga- New Zealand, due to what appeared to be metal fatigue. We're lucky we didn't lose the bottom half of the self-steering.
Dave took the old pivot piece to a guy in Opua who cut metal for a new one, but couldn't weld it up. Then he took the pieces to Terry Symonds at Alloy Stainless and Marine Ltd in Whangarei. Terry not only didn't finish the welding, but did such a slap-dash job of it- not bothering to block it or pin the holes - that the thing is next to unusable now. It took half an hour of filing to get it to the point where it can be forced into place, and the bolt holes don't line up. The new piece cost a total of $500 NZ.
The last bit of welding was done by Northern Marine Machining in Whangarei. We've had a great experience with them - their work is generally of good quality and speedy. Dave took an order back once after they messed up a measurement on his masthead fitting, and they re-did the work for free. They're a great resource.

Day 2 of the Haulout

The hardstand electrical supply jury-rig

The battle with the cutlass bearing and improvised tools...


An old zinc plate
Marquesa in her new home



Well, Dave hopes to get done in a couple weeks. We shall see...
Today I learned a bit about drive train components. The cutlass bearing is the bearing that holds the shaft after it exits the hull. It's a bronze tube with a very hard carbon/rubber-type interior that contacts the shaft. It is pressed into a bronze housing that bolts to the hull. Slots in the housing let seawater in to keep things cool. Everything is pretty big and strong and redundant. The 'bronze' is silicon bronze, which is made of copper and tin, plus 1-3% silicon and 1 % either iron, nickel, or manganese. You wouldn't think something made of copper and tin would be a lot stronger than stainless steel, but it is. Most fittings on boats are made of it. Even the rigging up top that looks like stainless is usually silicon bronze with a shiny chrome coating. Dave actually missed getting all his original stainless steel rigging hardware replaced by superior silicon bronze for free when Taenna did a recall (he heard about it 2 months after it ended). Another benefit of silicon bronze is that it's a natural dielectric - electric flow called electrolysis has a potential to eat up metals on boats if they are placed next to a dissimilar metal - a dielectric metal doesn't provide a pathway for this electrical flow. More on electrolysis later when I understand it better. It's a phenomenon that constantly comes up in conversations at the boatyard. I notice with interest that everything in the cutlass bearing housing is bronze except for the studs which hold it on. They are stainless steel because they screw in to a stainless steel plate inside the boat (cheaper than bronze for the manufacturer) and, more importantly, because stainless is more corrosion resistant than bronze. The housing is held on redundantly by double nuts - the outer nuts have holes drilled through them for cotter pins. The bearing is pressed into the housing and also held in place by set screws.
Dave normally replaces his cutlass bearing whenever he has the drive train apart - every few years. It gets a lot of wear, and isn't too expensive, so it just makes sense. At home, he has a press to take out the bearing. Here in Whangarei, we end up heating the housing with some MAPP gas, and alternate hacking at the bearing's plastic and sticking a socket into the housing and banging on it violently. In typical beginner's fashion am starting to have visions of an elaborate pressing contraption involving an overhanging concrete wall, some boards, and a bottle jack, when finally what's left of the thing reluctantly slides out. Improvisation is fun.
I wet sanded the cuprous-oxide antifouling paint with 60 grit and stressed out about whether I was actually removing the green algae layer or just making it disappear behind a thin layer of liquified red paint. I'd be very anal if this was my boat, so I really try to be up to what I take to be Dave's standards. Though the hull looked clean from a distance, there was a lot of algal growth and embedded little shells to be removed, especially at the waterline, the bottom 2', and the rudder.
I finished sanding the hull while Dave did a blur of other things, including weirdly jury-rigging one of the batteries to power the boat (which had to be removed to take apart the propeller shaft) using a cable and a couple sets of locking pliers. I try to stay away from that general area now. He also cleaned all the drive components, took the prop to be polished and balanced, took the cutlass bearing housing over to be sandblasted, took the propeller shaft to multiple shops to be inspected as it had some major wear, ordered a damper...

Hauling Out In Whangarei

Setting up the hardstand.



Farewell, Whangarei Port Basin Marina. Your pretty sunrises will be missed, your scummy tidal river waters will not.
Hauling out at Dockland 5 in Whangarei. This is Dave's first time coming out on a travel lift, as his home port has ways.
Hauling out on a travel lift is sort of a scary-looking process. We motored in to the square cut-out under the lift and they positioned the straps in what seemed like a very casual way. We just fit, winding up with only inches to spare between the keel and the ground, and between the forestay and the frame of the travel lift. Though the lift looks small, it can lift a boat four times the weight of the Marquesa. The forward-looking radar transducer got tweaked a little by one of the straps, but otherwise everything went OK. When she arrived at her slot, they lowered her down on a couple transverse steel beams, shimmed underneath with three piles of scrap blocks, and pushed the 4 vertical steel supports that slid along the steel beams against her sides to keep her from tipping. Very haphazard looking! But stable, of course.
She's pretty clean underneath. Relatively little grows in the tropics- warm water tends to be oxygen- and nutrient- poor compared to rich cold fishing-ground waters like California, Maine, western South America... After being power-washed, she hardly even looked like she needed paint. Curious potential boat-buyers who are doing the rounds of the boatyard gravitate to the clearly well-maintained Marquesa and pelt Dave with questions daily.
As soon as she was out of the water we took a look at the prop, which had been vibrating. It had an inch or so of rotational play- not good. The moment she was set up on the hardstand Dave went to work taking apart the drive train to make sure the play wasn't coming from a damaged gear box. He rebuilt the engine and gear box just before leaving on this trip, so that would have been a real shame.
Dave used a home-made prop puller to remove the prop, and unbolted the collar, waterless packing, and cutlass bearing so he could remove the shaft. This is the first time I've seen a drive train taken apart, so I was a bit disappointed to be underneath the boat, sanding, while all this interesting stuff was going on! Fortunately the issue turned out to be due to a known problem- a worn key in the collar. That should be much easier to fix- we can cut a couple inches off the propeller shaft and fill the space with a damper, then re-key the shaft lower down.
The hauling out and power wash cost only about US $115. A hardstand at the yard costs $15/day and includes power, environmental fees, and cooking and hygiene facilities. As I soon discover, this is one of the very few things which is reasonably priced in New Zealand. Power here is 220V, and the boat's wired for 110V, so we'll be running off battery power while we're in the yard unless we can get ahold of one of the scarce transformers.

The Yacht Marquesa

Dave's boat, the Marquesa.

I met Dave in November at Mariner's Cafe in Ha'apai, Tonga. I was looking for a ride to New Zealand and he definitely wasn't looking to give anyone a rid. But somehow, nudged along by the prompting of the friendly cafe owner who was perpetually giving him a hard time, and in light of the fact that I was weird enough to go to Antarctica, Dave grudgingly agreed to take me on for the crossing...

Since then, I've been traveling the South Island, and all the cruisers like Dave have been holed up in North Island ports like Opua and Whangarei, waiting out the South Pacific hurricane season and futiley trying not to go broke in New Zealand. In May, when the weather improves, people will start heading out for Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and other exotic destinations.

After a month volunteering in Christchurch, I'm back on the North Island, ready to do whatever grudge work might come up when the Marquesa gets hauled out for maintenance tomorrow... !

Whangarei Oil Refinery

NZ’s only oil refinery is located at Whangarei Head- an area deemed to be geologically stable and conveniently located.  Tankers from the Far East, Indonesia, Australia, and NZ deliver up to 130,000 tons per load- enough to run the refinery for 10 days.  The crude is stored in 2 mil gal and smaller tanks. 
From there it is boiled and the resulting gas is pumped to the distillation columns where its various components condense onto trays.  Products with high boiling points, such as residue, heavy gasoil, and light gasoil cool quickly and condense low in the column.  Higher in the column kerosene, gases, TOPS, and naphtha are deposited on trays.  Light and heavy gasoil will be refined into diesel, kerosene becomes jetfuel, and TOPS and naphtha become petrol.
From here the products are forwarded to desulphurization plants.  Under heat and pressure in the presence of a hydrogen catalyst, sulfur is separated in the form of toxic H2S gas. 
Next, the platformer utilizes a platinum catalyst and hydrogen to raise octane levels from around 50 to standard 91 and 95 petrol levels. 
Elsewhere, the Long Reside from the original distillation column goes through the most complex series of treatments.  First, it is pumped to a High Vacuum Unit, where  Waxy Distillate and Vacuum Gasoil rise up a column under vacuum conditions, and leave Short Residue at the bottom of the column.  This Short Residue goes to the Butane De-Asphalting Unit, where it meets a counter flowing stream of hot Butane.  The lighter components are absorbed into the butane and leave the top of the column.  Heavy asphalt components remain.  These are further distilled in a High Vacuum Unit to produce Bitumen.
The plant features a hydrogen manufacturing unit where a catalytic furnace combines butane, plat former gas, and steam to produce hydrogen gas.  A byproduct of this process is CO2 gas, which is sold for soft drinks. 
The Hydrocracker is the heart of the refinery.  Inside four giant reactors, under great pressure and heat, long hydrocarbon chain molecules are broken down (‘cracked’) into shorter chians.  This process turns  the heavy waxy feed into petrol, kerosene, and diesel components. 
Waste sulfur dioxide gas form various processes is transmuted to liquid sulfur, which is transported by road tanker to a Whangerei plant where it is used in the manufacture of fertilizer.  Old systems recovered 96% of sulfur, and new improvements have upped that number to 99.8%.  In order to depressure the plant, gases are disposed of safely using 90m high flare stacks, where a pilot flame burns continuously. 
End products are pumped down the 10” Auckland pipeline at the rate of 400,000litres/hour. 
The New Zealand Refining Company Ltd is one of the biggest employers in the Northland area, with 300 staff and up to 180 contractors on site. 

The Catlins

Rocks off Nugget Point

Nugget Point lighthouse

Inside the tunnel at Tunnel Beach.

Tunnel Beach. A prosperous farmer had a tunnel drilled down through the limestone bluffs in the 19th century so that his family could enjoy the beautiful beach below his fields.

Tunnel beach from above.

Purportedly the steepest residential street in the world. I now have complete and utter faith in the Orthia's brakes.

Beautiful old train station in Dunedin.

Taieri Gorge Railway - yes, this Was the easiest way into central Otago.

Otago

Lupines (introduced to NZ) and the Clay Cliffs.

The crazy crevasse-riddled landscape of a fault zone at Earthquakes in central Otago. Sheep wandered around, unconcerned about the big holes hidden by the long grass.

Ancient whale bones in limestone.

Only in NZ. And maybe Australia.

Moeraki boulders- concretions caused by the gradual buildup of layers of calcitic algae. Some of the finest examples in the world.

Concretion boulders, Moeraki.

Otago Peninsula

Otago Peninsula -

My day trip out on the peninsula was very enjoyable. I hiked partway out to Sandfly Bay- a beautiful windy track with nice views of bright sand dunes, blue sea, and beautiful greenery and flowers. I wish I’d had time to run down the dunes all the way to the beach. I raced a big cargo ship out to the very end of the Peninsula where the only mainland-based breeding colony of Royal Albatrosses was located. The area was a reserve, carefully protected from predators. I took my time in the good museum display and had a tour.

Royal Albatross are one of the world’s biggest birds, with a wingspan of 9’6”. They are superb gliders, reaching speeds of 75 mph and staying aloft at sea for months at a time. They sleep on the wing, only for a couple minutes at a time. The museum had a wall mounting of a huge amount of indigestible trash-mostly plastic- taken out of the stomach of an albatross.
The colony contained 99 birds which had probably moved in from overcrowded offshore island rookeries.(Chatham Island has 20,000 birds) The head became a good location after the shrub was cleared for defense structures during the Great Game tensions between Great Britain and Russia. The first recorded egg was laid in 1920. But it was not until 1938 that a chick fledged successfully.

Eggs are laid in November, and incubation takes 11 weeks - one of the longest avian incubation periods. Chicks emerge in February, taking an average of 3 days to break out of the shell. For the next month they are then guarded and kept warm by one parent while the other searches for food. Thereafter the chicks are left on their own for 2-4 days while the parents leave to fish. The downy chicks are comically large. At seven months of age, they weigh 10-12 kg (adults are only 8-9 kg). The extra weight sees them through the September fledging process. After chicks fledge, they take off for the rich fishing grounds off the coast of South America. Here they spend 3-5 years continuously at sea before coming back to the colonies to socialize and select mates. At 9-12 years they breed for the first time, and continue to breed every other year. Royal albatrosses can live longer than 60 years; average lifespan is 30-40 years.

The headland also provides safe breeding grounds for several other endangered species. On its upper side, the Royal Albatross colony is abutted by a colony of Red-Beaked Gulls, a crowded acre rife with noisy chicks. Down near the water, Stewart Island Shags incubate eggs on volcano-shaped mud mounds. The world population of Stewart Island shags numbers about 400. They are solitary hunters, flying fast and diving up to 100’ deep for fish. The more common Spotted Shags are communal hunters the fish mid-level waters up to 10 miles offshore. They have lovely breeding plumage. The peninsula is also home to penguins. Blue penguins are quite common. They’re tiny- only 2 lbs. They fish over the continental shelf and come home to ground burrows at sunset in large rafts. Yellow eyed- penguins are rarer, larger (10 lbs), and very shy. They go back and forth in the afternoon, feeding chicks in ground burrows. They dive to the seafloor and mid-level waters to feed.